Writer and director Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One is easily among 2023’s most engaging, exciting, and poignant films. This isn’t some pulp monster movie to be casually dismissed by snobs—it’s a compelling post-World War II drama that periodically features a monster rearing its huge head, and it gives its big, scaly, radioactive leading man his […]
Writer and director Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One is easily among 2023’s most engaging, exciting, and poignant films. This isn’t some pulp monster movie to be casually dismissed by snobs—it’s a compelling post-World War II drama that periodically features a monster rearing its huge head, and it gives its big, scaly, radioactive leading man his […]
By Erin Lyndal Martin In 2023, Charlottesville’s music scene thrived with blurred genres and an array of music venues. The year saw bands incorporating ’80s pop hooks, ’90s synths, and other welcome blasts from the past. With continued fallout from the pandemic, Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar stopped hosting shows, leaving punk and indie bands to […]
In considering the bookish highlights of the past year—the breadth of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and zines read and shared with others; the bookstore shelves browsed and little free libraries visited; the virtual and in-person readings, discussions, and book clubs attended—a theme emerges. Books by queer writers, about queer characters, and curated by queer booksellers are […]
My Christmas spirit sense starts tingling early and often here in Charlottesville. Way before Carter Mountain Orchard serves its first apple cider donut, I’m half-deranged with holiday anticipation, eager to push past the trick-or-treating munchkins on the Lawn and the dry forkfuls of Thanksgiving dinner, just to get to the good stuff: Call me Buddy […]
The results are in! In November, C-VILLE readers submitted the best photo they captured in 2023, each illustrating the theme “What a day!” Our judges—Ézé Amos and Stacey Evans—reviewed more than 80 submissions, and what follows are the best of the bunch. The final list features gorgeous landscapes, bustling wildlife, and captivating shots in and […]
Caroling goes next level at Christmas at the Paramount, the Oratorio Society of Virginia’s annual holiday show. Music Director Michael Slon and over 80 community singers perform choral arrangements of traditional favorites and holiday classics, including “The First Nowell,” “Jingle Bells,” and pieces from The Nutcracker and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The show climaxes with […]
Someone ate the cookies meant for the reindeer while rockin’ too hard around the Christmas tree, and who was that kissing Santa Claus? Storytelling meets improv at Hamner Theater’s Holiday Stories Playback. Come prepared with a true holiday-themed story or story fragment, and the company of actors will perform it for the audience with humor […]
Elves and cotton-headed ninny-muggins alike are invited to hit the town for the Brew & Buddy Run. Your adventure begins at The Paramount Theater, then you’ll journey through the seven layers of the Candy Cane Forest and the Sea of Swirly Twirly Gum Drops as you make stops at Three Notch’d and Kardinal Hall for […]
It may not look a lot like Christmas, but it sure does feel like it when Pentatonix comes to town. The a cappella supergroup recently put out its seventh holiday album, The Greatest Christmas Hits, with 23 previously released tracks and eight new tunes for holiday carolers to belt out. Audiences have a chance to […]
Dancers and audience members move together by communicating through phones—no speaking, talking, or touching allowed—in Amanda Monroe Finn’s Social Dance. The four-minute short documents last year’s immersive performance experience at Mad Bowl Field, which featured choreography by Shandoah Goldman. Following the screening, audience members are invited to participate in their own social dance using their […]